Last 150 of my 500 falls off

a full body suit will make a big difference. so will shaving if you don't want to spend the money. In my experience with body suits and shaving you can expect to drop about 3 seconds per 100 in your 500. this is a bit of speculation but it is also based on observation and experience over many years. i would approach a taper for the 500 by making sure all the muscle soreness is gone going into the meet. You should feel fresh and powerful. Also, realize that during the last two or three weeks you are not going to get into better shape (assuming you've been training for several months). what you can do is focus on speed and details. focus on your race strategy. learn the pace of your race. do a couple of turns at the end of practice and some starts. Practice the turns you want to race with during your training sessions. I have always found that an increase in detail focus the last couple of weeks produces results in the big meet. if you are dying at the end of your race you are going out too fast. it is that simple. often we try to complicate it, but in my mind it is that simple. pace your race better. don't go out slow but just back off your first 100 a bit. if you want to swim a 5:30 in the 500 but never swim at that speed in practice, chances are you won't be able to hit that pace in a meet. i don't mean swimming a set of 500s holding that pace, but rather, swim a set of 100s holding that pace on an interval that allows you to maintain that pace. the way to get faster is to change something. you know the saying "if nothing changes then nothing changes". i am not a person whose first response is "i have to train harder". I usually go for "I have to change something in my training." sometimes its train more intensely, sometimes its training less or more, sometimes i have to change something technical, sometimes i have to change my mindset. but something has to change if I want to keep getting faster. I have heard a Eddie Reese (maybe the world's best coach) say that there are only four ways to get faster 1. improve technique 2. get stronger 3. harder workouts 4. if the workouts can't get any harder then swim the same workouts faster i particularly like number four. often we get into our comfort zone. viewed this way it is easier to just swim more yards in our comfort zone. what is better in my view is to do the same workouts just swim them faster. so, if you normally hold 1:15/100 in workout start holding 1:13. we can all do this. it comes down to "are you willing to hurt like this"? sometimes the answer is no. and that is alright. I know I don't always want to make swimming a process of agonizing training sessions. but i also realize i have to be satisfied with the results that moderate levels of pain produce. i hope this helps and i didn't ramble too much. good luck and let us know how it turns out.

a full body suit will make a big difference. so will shaving if you don't want to spend the money. In my experience with body suits and shaving you can expect to drop about 3 seconds per 100 in your 500. this is a bit of speculation but it is also based on observation and experience over many years. i would approach a taper for the 500 by making sure all the muscle soreness is gone going into the meet. You should feel fresh and powerful. Also, realize that during the last two or three weeks you are not going to get into better shape (assuming you've been training for several months). what you can do is focus on speed and details. focus on your race strategy. learn the pace of your race. do a couple of turns at the end of practice and some starts. Practice the turns you want to race with during your training sessions. I have always found that an increase in detail focus the last couple of weeks produces results in the big meet. if you are dying at the end of your race you are going out too fast. it is that simple. often we try to complicate it, but in my mind it is that simple. pace your race better. don't go out slow but just back off your first 100 a bit. if you want to swim a 5:30 in the 500 but never swim at that speed in practice, chances are you won't be able to hit that pace in a meet. i don't mean swimming a set of 500s holding that pace, but rather, swim a set of 100s holding that pace on an interval that allows you to maintain that pace. the way to get faster is to change something. you know the saying "if nothing changes then nothing changes". i am not a person whose first response is "i have to train harder". I usually go for "I have to change something in my training." sometimes its train more intensely, sometimes its training less or more, sometimes i have to change something technical, sometimes i have to change my mindset. but something has to change if I want to keep getting faster. I have heard a Eddie Reese (maybe the world's best coach) say that there are only four ways to get faster 1. improve technique 2. get stronger 3. harder workouts 4. if the workouts can't get any harder then swim the same workouts faster i particularly like number four. often we get into our comfort zone. viewed this way it is easier to just swim more yards in our comfort zone. what is better in my view is to do the same workouts just swim them faster. so, if you normally hold 1:15/100 in workout start holding 1:13. we can all do this. it comes down to "are you willing to hurt like this"? sometimes the answer is no. and that is alright. I know I don't always want to make swimming a process of agonizing training sessions. but i also realize i have to be satisfied with the results that moderate levels of pain produce. i hope this helps and i didn't ramble too much. good luck and let us know how it turns out.